. >> the nipping at the heels, we've talked about the offense versus defense. mitt romney was maybe getting back on his feet a little bit and then this comes along and not only is it not an effective tool, it's sort of -- in some ways, makes romney look like a chump, the fact that his own party thinks this is what they need to do. >> well, they need to be -- to win the election it's pretty clear. the president's advisors would tell you they need to be talking about the economy. they went after joe biden for his gaffe on saying the middle class has done poorly under the president, but i think, again, they're trying to do things in this tactical way that just hasn't worked for them so far and i think every day they're not having mitt romney out forcefully explaining what the president has done on the economy, is not a great day for them. now, he's in a better place than a lot of the pundits have suggested but i don't really think they have days to waste on things like this and the backlash against it was so strong. when drudge tees something up, even though he ti